The number of birds visiting British gardens is on the decline, according to a survey involving 470,000 people.

Although the house sparrow continued to be the most common garden bird, its numbers have dropped from an average of 10 per garden in 1979 to 4.4 in 2006.

The starling, once the most common, is down to a quarter of those in 1979.

Some 86,000 children were among those who watched gardens and parks in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds's January Big Garden Birdwatch.

The numbers involved broke the previous record set in 2004 of 419,000 participants.

The house sparrow was the most common bird seen over the two days - although the blackbird, recorded in 94% of all 270,000 gardens involved, was the most widespread - and 8.1m birds of 80 species were seen.

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.